National Geographic / Skate the World

Mehring, Jonathan JONATHAN MEHRING is an award-winning photographer recognized as the top skateboard photographer and #1 of today's Top Ten Skateboard Influencers by the X-Games. Mehring has put together teams of top American skaters and travelled to every inhabited continent. He discovered his passion for the medium at an early age, photographing his friends skateboarding and playing music. Mehring enrolled in the photography department at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he earned a BFA in Communication Arts and Design. He was the first of his class to be published, completing stories for Thrasher and Slap magazines even before graduating. Since then his work has taken him to more than 30 countries around the world. He has been published in national and international magazines and newspapers including Rolling Stone, Details, Le Monde, The Wall St. Journal, Spin, Huck, Skateboarder, Transworld, Thrasher, Monster Children, and Kingpin. He has exhibited his photographs at galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Sydney, Holland, Germany, Hawaii, and Virginia. Commercial clients include Nike, Converse, Levi's, Marlboro, Quiksilver, Vans, Adidas, Burton, RVCA, and Red Bull. Additionally, he conducted a seminar on photography at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers Academy during the summer of 2006, and on several occasions has lectured at VCU about professional photography.

"Jonathan Mehring s first book, called Skate the World, featuring images he s made over a period of 15 years of skateboarding in unexpected places all over the globe." --Photo District News

"A new book of photography provides us with a novel way of looking at the world." --Hemispheres 

"Beyond these impressive landscapes and hair-raising tricks, Mehring documents the spirit of skateboarding culture found in unassuming small cities and towns: quiet moments where people find community and solace in a pastime that can be a distraction from hardship, and the skateboard a badge of camaraderie." --Vanity Fair 

"Skate the World chronicles skateboarders grinding, ollying, and catching record-breaking air on nearly every continent." --Daily Beast

"Jonathan Mehring's Skate the World (National Geographic) is sick." --Vanity Fair